HOPE AND FEAR: The need to create a spectacular pilot episode

The script had to be not just good but spectacular. A series can recover from the occasional poor episode, but not a bad pilot. This put everyone involved, not just the writers, under a lot of pressure.

In addition, [DS9] was ending its second year of production. Piller and [DS9]'s Ira Behr were expected to produce a better-than-average final episode in order to ensure that viewers watched the third season the following autumn. This put Piller under a good deal of pressure as he was dividing his time between [DS9] and [Star Trek Voyager], and in addition the [Star Trek Voyager] pilot would be the length of two episodes so twice as much had to be written as for a normal episode.

[Star Trek Voyager] also started production short-staffed. Many staff were working long hours.

Many of the experienced production crew who had been taken off their regular jobs on [TNG] in order to work on on the film [Star Trek VII: Generations] were still there as the film required more time than was originally scheduled, and so they could not be available with any other production needs. Berman was heavily involved in all aspects of that film's production as well as [Star Trek Voyager].

Development was committed for [Star Trek Voyager] and the public annnouncement had been made, and the scheduled premiere air date meant a deadline that could not be put back.

There was a feeling of slight unease: the pilots of the previous Star Trek series had been successful - could they maintain the standard for series four? In addition, for the first time in 9 years of television episodes (as of [Star Trek Voyager]'s premiere and excluding feature films), a new starship would be introduced, and it would succeed a long line of popular starships dating all the way back to the original USS Enterprise in [TOS] - would the starship prove popular? There was also the issue of the woman captain - no one knew for sure how this would turn out.

Additionally, Paramount was launching the United Paramount Network, and relying on [Star Trek Voyager] - the show was to be the centrepiece of UPN's planned programme launch schedule. UPN was hoping that Star Trek's appeal would help it sign up more television stations and faster, than its rival at Warner Brothers. Therefore a flopped [Star Trek Voyager] pilot would cause not just the new series to founder.

It was against this backdrop that Michael Piller began writing the script for the pilot episode. The episode was still, as yet, untitled.